Outsourcing Tradition: My New, Globalized Diwali

By: Sandip Roy
October 26, 2011

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The holiday Diwali is underway in India. For decades, Sandip Roy spent most of the Indian holidays as an expatriate in California. But now that he's moved back to India, he says the country's new affluence is changing Diwali traditions.

Nothing says "festival" more than the sound of drums. Except this year they started two weeks early. And the drummers were outside a cellphone store. Once, that sound meant the Mother Goddess was coming home to Earth. Now it's selling mobile recharge options.

In the new India, the holidays from Durga Puja to Diwali seem to be all about selling, selling, selling. Festive Madness sales. Special Diwali offers on flat-screen TVs. The sweet shops are groaning under the weight of giant gift trays of sweets and cashews and almonds. At my gym, they are already advertising post-holiday weight loss specials.

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan showed up at our local mall to sell his big Diwali blockbuster release, Ra-One. He plays a superhero. My nephew and I went to see him and almost got crushed by thousands of delirious fans.

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